Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez of UT Health San Antonio has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Long COVID.
She’s the only Texan to serve on the 14-member panel, according to a UT Health San Antonio press release on Tuesday.
In her new role, Verduzco-Gutierrez will help study Long COVID further and help shape federal strategies for addressing the long-term effects COVID-19 has on patients.
“Long COVID” refers to COVID-19 cases where symptoms of the virus linger for weeks or even months after the initial infection. While most recover from COVID-19 within a few weeks, some patients continue to experience ongoing symptoms after the virus has cleared from their bodies.
Verduzco-Gutierrez currently serves as the chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, where she directs the system’s multidisciplinary long COVID clinic.
She also serves as the chief of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service Line at University Health and is the medical director of neurorehabilitation at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospitals.
She previously served on the committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a congressionally chartered organization that last year produced a universal working definition of Long COVID.
“It is truly an honor to be involved in this federal advisory committee on long COVID,” she said, in the release. “This is an opportunity for public-facing persons to provide collective advice to the Secretary of Health for long COVID. It will be great to offer my perspective as a physician-researcher who has been caring for persons with long COVID and other infection-associated chronic conditions.”
